Entraining cleats of rubber or like material have heretofore been utilized in assemblies for steep or vertical conveying of loose material by attachment to a flat conveyor belt of such assembly, as fully described and illustrated in assignee's copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 274,713, filed Nov. 21, 1988 which is a continuation of Ser. No. 509,432, filed June 6, 1983, and issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,273,238; 4,425,995; 4,440,537; 4,676,367 and 4,681,503.
In the entraining cleat constructions of applicant's prior application and patents and in other entraining cleat constructions known to applicant, an entraining bar of desired configuration was positioned between separate parts of a generally two-piece foot portion and secured thereby therebetween by screw bolts which extended transversely through the entraining bar and the upwardly extending branches of each part of the foot portion. To accommodate these transversely extending screw bolts, corresponding apertures were required to be formed along the length of the entraining bar.
Since, in recent years, the entraining cleat constructions have become bigger and bigger and higher and higher, changes were required for strength and stabilization of such entraining cleats including vulcanizing several layers of steel strands into the entraining bar. These changes made it very difficult, if not impossible, to provide transverse apertures for the screw bolts through the entraining bar during manufacture of such entraining bars. Accordingly, subsequent drilling or punching of the apertures through the entraining bar was required and was extremely uneconomical. Additionally, such entraining bars were considerably weakened by the transverse apertures formed through the main body of the entraining bar for reception of the screw bolts.
It has not been considered possible to eliminate the use of such screw bolts for fastening of entraining bars to a foot portion, since this arrangement enabled the entraining bar to be releasably fastened to the foot portion for replacement or exchange after being subjected to the considerable wear normally exerted on such entraining bars during use in the assembly for steep or vertical conveying of loose material.